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Nadal wins Stuttgart Open

Jefferson ChaseJune 14, 2015

He did it on clay - now he's done it on grass. Former world number one Rafael Nadal has won the new grass-court incarnation of the Stuttgart Open, beating Viktor Troicki in straight sets and turning his season around.

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Rafael Nadal poses with winner's trophy and car in Stuttgart
Image: D. Kopatsch/Bongarts/Getty Images

Nadal had won at the Weissenhof Tennis Club back in 2005 and 2007 back when the tournament was played on sand, and he was more than a match for the eighth-seeded Serb Troicki in Sunday's final.

The first set between the two men went to a tie-breaker, in which Nadal prevailed with relative ease 7-3. A service break in the second set then sent the hard-hitting Mallorca native on the road to victory.

The Spaniard fired 11 aces, as he wrapped up the victory in 88 minutes. The final score was 7-6, 6-3.

Rafael Nadal hits a ball during the Stuttgart Open final
The hard-hitting Spaniard is hot on grass in the run-up to WimbledonImage: Getty Images/AFP/T. Kienzle

Nadal thus becomes the first man to win this event on two surfaces - a side note in his illustrious career, which now includes 66 tournament titles. More importantly, the Stuttgart win gives the Spaniard some momentum ahead of Wimbledon in two weeks time.

"I've been gaining confidence over the past month and a half after a very poor first three and a half months of this season," Nadal said after the match.

The former world number one had failed to win a single event on his favorite surface during the 2015 clay-court season.

"I didn't feel confidence, but that has been changing and my focus now is to prepare as best as I can for Wimbledon," Nadal said in Stuttgart.

"I've not forgotten how to play tennis. But now, things are coming together for me."